


Idiot Space Heater

by justsomerain



Category: Captain Marvel (Marvel), Marvel (Comics), Spider-Woman (Comic), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Moving In Together, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 02:43:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2605667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsomerain/pseuds/justsomerain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carol is one of those people who always runs a little warm, and Jess loves it because winter is New York City is terrible, cold, and No Good.</p><p>Part of my NaNoWriMo writing 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Idiot Space Heater

**Author's Note:**

  * For [choctopus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/choctopus/gifts).



Carol is warm. It's nothing unusual, really, she's just one of those people who are never really cold, and if it's up to Jess, she wouldn't change a thing about that.

Of course, it would be convenient if she herself were a little warmer, but Carol is a perfect little heater in winter. Especially because New York City winters are terrible, and her heaters are broken more often than they work, so when that's the case it's as easy as calling Carol, or going over to Carol's (the Statue of Liberty is surprisingly well isolated, even if in the mornings you can see frost on the outside layers of the windows. Double glazing, what an invention.)

In summers, it was a little less convenient, because by some hellish trick the summers in New York were as hot as the winters were cold, and cuddling and affection is all nice and well, except when it's already sweltering outside, and then your girlfriend slash best friend rolls over in her sleep and hugs you to her, so you're even stickier and less likely to fall asleep.

But right now, she wouldn’t complain about it for the world, or anything outside of it, because it’s freezing outside, ten degrees or something like it, and it’s the third time this month the heating in her building is out. She could just move to one of the many Avengers run places, but she didn’t particularly like living with a lot of them under one roof because those places were like a giant target for bad guys attacking, and living with Clint Barton was not a thing that was ever going to happen.

Absolutely not.

So it’s Carol Danvers to the rescue, bringing over blankets and a thermos of soup, and Jess is so terribly grateful, but also so terribly cold, even though she’s already wrapped in three layers of shirts and sweaters, sweatpants, thick socks, a knit blanket over that, and the blanket off her bed on top of that, and she’s still freezing. 

Alright, freezing may be overreacting, but she’s still cold, and it’s a struggle to get off the couch to let Carol in, even if she’s carrying extra blankets, soup, and her own body heat. (It’s especially the body heat that’s important, the rest can go to hell for all Jess cares. If all her own blankets don’t work, she’s not sure extra ones will, anyway.)

“You know you could have just come to my place, right?” Carol says with one eyebrow raised at her, shrugging out of her coat and taking off her snow boots.

She’s not sure whether she should deign this ridiculous suggestion with a response, but finally she rolls her eyes at the blonde, and sits down in the nest she’s made on the floor, blankets heaped up to make the base and walls, so she ends up resembling a giant egg with a dark haired head popping out of it.

“It’s warmer inside than it is outside, if not a whole lot. Ergo, hell no, I’m not going outside in this type of weather. Do you know how bad public transport it?”

As Carol putters around in the kitchen, looking for mugs to pour the soup in, and spoons, Jess continues.

“And it’s even worse because everybody is damp and cold and it all smells like wet dog, which would almost beat its usual stench. But still, no thanks. We can’t all fly everywhere. Or just fly in general.”

Carol shakes her head at her, and Jess accepts the mug of soup, spoon standing in it, gratefully, opting to drape herself in the blanket instead now, for easier soup access. Before she takes a sip, she kicks over one of the walls she’d so carefully constructed earlier, making some space. 

“Come sit with me, you idiot space heater.”

The blonde shakes her head, laughing, but sits down anyway, and Jess quickly drapes one end of the blanket over her girlfriend’s shoulders. Totally because she might be cold. Not because that way it’s easier to trap Carol’s warmth. Not at all. She would never be as selfish as to do it just because of that.

Just kidding, she totally would be.

But, alright, it’s at least partially because it’s the nice thing to do, and because she loves Carol, even if she’s pretty sure the blonde doesn’t need to be draped in blankets to be warm.

They sit in silence, slurping the hot soup off equally hot spoons, and it’s amazing, because soup without fail does its thing in heating people up from the inside out. Coffee is also great for that, of course, but for some reason its heating powers pale in comparison to soup. (And Carol Danvers.)

Finally, mug empty, Jess wraps the overhanging end of the blanket over her front, and Carol bursts out in laughter, to which she sticks out her tongue. Not very mature, but very satisfying indeed, even if it does nothing except make Carol laugh even harder at her pitiful attempts to keep warm.

“You could just ask your land lord to fix this, you know? They do that. Like, they’re supposed to do that. Fixing heaters and stuff like that. Especially when it’s ten degrees outside.”

She mumbles something foul in regards to the land lord, and shakes her head, one hand clutching at the blanket so it doesn’t slip off her shoulders.

“He’s too busy, he said. Yeah, no shit, if the entire building’s without heating, you know. People might be a little pissed off about that in the middle of winter. Plus, like this I’ve got an excuse to drag everything out of the bedroom and build it all up in the middle of the room. I’m told normal kids do it all the time, building blanket forts.”

Carol wraps one arms around her shoulders, and Jess sighs contently. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was because Carol just ran a little warmer, or if it was Kree stuff, all she knew was that there was nothing as useful like a girlfriend that doubles as a space heater.

“Or you could come live with me.”

It’s an off hand remark, and at first Jess just snorts at it, ducking her head further down in the blankets until she’s up to her ears in blanket. It takes a moment to process, and when it hits, she looks at Carol, not quite sure she heard that correctly.

“Repeat that?”

Carol shrugs at her, casually. “You could move in with me, if you want.”

Still Jess just stares at her, eyes slightly narrowed, and then she laughs, brushing it off. “Making sure you’ve always got a cat sitter, right? You know, I am not cat sitting that one. Worst cat ever.”

The blonde rolls her eyes at her, and gives her a look, eyebrows raised, still waiting for it to sink in. Something that, admittedly, could take a while, because yes, she loves Carol, but she’s also not very good at all this relationship stuff. (It was what Clint and her had had in common.)

“No, really.”

“You’re kidding, right? Living in the Statue of Liberty. Are you even allowed to like, live together in the Statue of Liberty? As two women? As in us? I’m pretty sure there’s laws against that, cause it’s a symbol of America and all that bullshit.”

Another eye roll, and a heavy sigh, and Jess is silent for a good minute, maybe longer. It doesn’t happen often, that she’s dumbstruck. Maybe it was a Spider thing, the incessant talking, and the rarity of actually being stopped in those talking tracks. She knew Parker did it too, constantly chattering, never shutting the fuck up.

All the while, Carol waited patiently, serene smile on her lips. Of course she would, because Air Force apparently bred nerves of steel. The Kree thing might’ve helped with it too.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

The blonde smiled widely at her, pulling her towards herself, to plant a kiss on her lips. As she pulled away, Jess was smiling almost as wide as her girlfriend, feeling as though she must look like an idiot.

“Just let me rent a U Haul.”


	2. Moving In Isn't Always Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving in isn't always easy.

In the end there’s no need for a U Haul, mostly by virtue of despite the looks of her apartment on the average day, it turns out Jess just didn’t own that many things. She figured it may have been her upbringing. 

Turns out being raised by scientists, almost dying, getting put into a sort of stasis thing, and then being taken in by a high ranking Hydra agents, to be brainwashed into believing the lies he spread, and then becoming a vagrant wandering Europe isn’t exactly conducive to wanting to leave a lot of traces when you inevitably have to move again to avoid one thing or another.

It was probably a thing, and very likely somebody with more interest in psychology could say a lot of things about it, but she really rather preferred if people didn’t, thank you very much.

There’s furniture, of course, but really, considering that most of hers is ratty and definitely up for replacement, she could just leave that in her old apartment. Plus, it’s only a hassle, bringing all of it up entirely to the top of the Statue of Liberty. So most of that doesn’t count.

She doesn’t care much for her (tiny, old) tv, and so it’s just clothing, linens, and other personal stuff that’s really important to bring now she’s moving in with Carol. Who would have thought that apparently there is no issue whatsoever with two women living together in the Statue of Liberty. In a relationship kind of way. After all, think of what the Republicans would say.

Jess can’t help but grin at that thought.

The only downside she sees to all of this is that there will be no other option for her but to cat sit Chewie, worst cat in the history of cats. Even if she’s not really a cat, as it turns out, but some sort of weird alien cat like monster, that lays like a million eggs, without ever before giving any indication that such a thing was even possible.

She had, of course, heard all about how this had worked on the space ship Carol had been on for the past couple months, and how Rocket (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame) had tried to warn Carol that, really, this is a Flerken, not a cat, and you’re gonna have your entire ship infested with these things. Get rid of it now. This is gonna happen. Trust me.

Of course, Carol being Carol, and being as attached to Chewie as she was, had ignored the raccoon's really quite sensible advice, and kept the vermin aboard (both Rocket and Chewie), only to return to an actual infestation of Flerken eggs. Yeah. Eggs. Why the hell would a feline alien lay eggs?

And of course, this hadn’t prompted Carol to get Chewie space fixed, in any possible way. If it was even possible to get an alien cat species fixed. If there were even vets in outer space. Surely there were, even aliens kept pets, even if it were really, really weird pets, with too many teeth and tentacles and god knows what else.

So it happens that moving in day is a little less moving in day, and a little more “hey look my space alien cat laid a shit ton of eggs and this might cause a bit of an issue please remember you love me.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Jess stands, mouth slightly agape, in the door opening to one of the rooms in the Statue of Liberty, her new (shared) apartment, looking at the mass of slightly pulsing eggs, a wave of distaste coming over her.

Her girlfriend, the absolute genius who did not have her space pet spayed or neutered, is standing with her arms folded over her chest, staring at the mass of eggs. She opens her mouth as if to speak, and after some vague motions with one hand, she shuts her mouth again, looking from Jess, to the eggs, and back to Jess.

“I’m sorry?”

Jess snorts, still looking at Carol’s, well, probably their, now, pet’s nascent offspring.

“How did you not have her spayed? Isn’t that a thing they tell everyone all the time? Spay and neuter your pets?” She looks at Carol, still incredulous about all of this, on this day of all days. “Don’t they have space vets?”

Carol seems as dumbstruck as she did herself, and just shrugs kind of helplessly. It could have been worse, definitely, with more than just this one room covered in sort of slimy gross eggs, ready to hatch a thousand tiny cat alien babies (alien kittens?) at any moment.

“How could you not have noticed your cat was carrying this many eggs inside of it?”

Next to her the blonde begins to chuckle, and already Jess feels the overwhelming urge to punch her girlfriend. Not that it would do a whole lot, with Carol Danvers being pretty damage resistant, and she wouldn’t put any real power behind it anyway, but the idea is very satisfying. 

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“I wouldn’t have believed you if you had told me your cat lays eggs, Carol. I think, right now, I’m pretty ready to believe a lot of things.”

The blonde opens her mouth, but is interrupted by a scratching from inside the room, and the meowing of the horrible creature that laid all these fucking eggs. Really, if she didn’t like Chewie yet, this really didn’t exactly warm Jess up to the idea of having a cat of any kind, let alone this particular apparent hell spawn.

“Meow.”

Jess glares at the culprit, thinking mean things at the cat, Flerken, whatever Chewie actually was, before looking again at Carol, who is staring with rapt eyes at one cluster of eggs, that is moving ominously, wiggling, and making scratching sounds.

As Jess opens her mouth, Carol absently waves a hand at her, making shushing sounds, stepping closer to the cracking eggs. “You did not just shush me, you...”

Carol makes the shushing sound again, and Jess files it away for later, when she is absolutely, most definitely, without a doubt going to make the blonde pay for shushing her. She’s not sure how yet, but she’s pretty sure she can figure something out. If all else fails, she could always just set the Hulk on her, using the magical science of pheromones. After all, she also got Hulk to make her a sandwich, so how hard could it be to make Hulk annoy her girlfriend just enough for her to feel like it might be payback for shushing Jess earlier on.

However, despite everything, even Jess stepped one step, just the one, further inside the room, looking over Carol’s shoulder, something facilitated a lot by the fact that she was ducked down, kneeling by the cluster of eggs that was making sounds.

As the first of the eggs broke open, both of them took a deep breath in, the sound sounding like a gasp, though her own more one of “oh god not more cats”, and her girlfriend’s probably one of the exact opposite sentiment. 

There were already too many cats (Flerken, who cared) in the apartment, and it was just the one they had had before Chewie had decided to lay more eggs. And there was absolutely no way they were going to keep... Jess quickly looked around the room, shaking her her head. Way too many space kittens. What the hell were they going to feed them with, anyway?

Carol turned around, big grin on her big dumb face, and Jess shook her head. “No. Oh no. Absolutely not. Don’t you even think about it, you... No. We’re not keeping them.”

Not that the blonde seemed to register anything she said, arms full of space kittens, that stupid, stupid grin still plastered on her face. Despite everything, she did have to admit they were pretty cute, but hundreds was just too many, even if they had been absolutely normal Earth cats.

“Absolutely not. We’re not keeping them.”


End file.
